Published: Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 09:26 PM.

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“There may be officials in Shelby and elsewhere in the county that may resent Kings Mountain, that think they are smarter and more deserving, and resent the disproportionately large political and economic influence Kings Mountain has. There may be people that would like to see Kings Mountain weakened economically and politically so they can steal control of the lake and other capital assets from the city.”

In a 76-page document Kings Mountain City Councilman Keith Miller prepared and provided to The Star , Miller made this statement about Shelby and county officials, in an argument against the proposed Catawba Indian Nation resort and casino.

“If some of those people think the casino is bad for Kings Mountain would they be for the casino?” Miller asked in the document. “Just because someone is for the casino does not necessarily mean they think the casino is good for Kings Mountain.”

The document—a paper Miller wrote to examine the “possible political, economic, social, spiritual and constitutional implications of a casino near Kings Mountain”—contains a number of charts based on data Miller made via certain assumptions.

Miller is the only city councilman to oppose the casino and who didn’t sign the letter of support Kings Mountain's council sent in favor of the casino; he is also the only elected official in the county to speak out against the casino since news first broke in August of the plans.

“I fear the casino may gain control of the city council,” Miller said. “The result may be a darkening of the city economically, ethically, spiritually and educationally."

Miller drew headlines in April 2013 after a resolution he penned for Rowan County officials drew national and even international backlash.

Some residents and news organizations interpreted the resolution as an effort to establish an official state religion in North Carolina. However, Miller, its writer, said that was never the intent.

Selling souls

One of the main impacts Miller focused on in the paper is the resort's affect on churches in the area and the city’s spiritual health.

Based on four assumptions, Miller said the city’s churches might see a decrease in church attendance by as much as 1,500 people. His charts, based off his own assumptions, show 1,100 fewer baptisms overall after the casino has been open for 36 years.

“If we take those baptism numbers and divide them by the net economic benefits of casino impacts, we arrive at how many dollars of economic benefits were realized in the city market for each additional lost soul. Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The next chart may represent how much we might be selling each soul for,” Miller wrote in the document.

That chart shows, between the first and sixth operating year of the casino, the value of one lost soul could be $5 million.

Miller’s other charts and data are based heavily on assumptions, and Miller readily admitted in the document that he was “sure my assumptions and data are flawed.”

“I make no claim to be a professional at modeling economic impacts. But I am not an idiot either. I encourage readers to weigh broad concepts and not worry about the accuracy or inaccuracy of the numbers,” he said.

But numbers have been a big part of the conversation about the proposed resort.

UNC economic study

According to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's business school that examined the impacts of the Harrah's Cherokee Casino on the area, “Harrah's Cherokee Casino has had a clear positive impact on the economy of western North Carolina.”

The study said about 3.6 million people visit the casino each year, generating $386 million in revenue.

A phase 1 study for the resort provided to The Star in September reported that it would generate a total of nearly $90 million in wages for 4,000 newly created jobs.

“The economic impact and the jobs are very, very obvious,” said David Dear, former county manager now part of the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership. “I find it offensive and an insult to people’s intelligence that people are out there making up facts and figures to intimidate the public about the impact of the resort in our community.”

Dear said those facts have no basis, and that such a large investment in the community would attract even more development around it.

The resort's application, made by the Catawba Indian Nation in September, is still in the review process in Washington D.C. Once that process is finished, the application must be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“There’s still a little ways to go in the process before we know the results. But everything right now looks to be fine,” Dear said Thursday.

So what else can you find in the document?

A sample of other topics discussed regarding the casino:

On more than 4,000 jobs casino could bring

“Each of us weighs things differently. For example, I currently have a job so I might not value the prospect of new jobs as highly as someone who doesn’t have a job.”

Casino may ‘take over’ local governments

“Since the tribe may have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on local elections, they may eventually take over control of the city council, county commission, school board and sheriff’s offices.”

Kings Mountain city council's support

“At this point I believe it is necessary for me to address the quasi-official endorsement letter from the council. Given the assumptions, arguments and data discussed above, and given that council made the quasi-official endorsement without the benefit of impact statements focused on the city not the region, some have argued that council should either officially withdraw the endorsement letter for lack of sufficient information, or commission impact statement studies looking only at the impacts on the city, not the region.”

City could become like New York, San Francisco

“I think the exodus and repulsion of people who adhere to traditional family values, and others who lean to the right ideologically, may result in a shift of the local culture ideologically and financially to the left and to a spiritually different conviction. Kings Mountain may start to look more like a mini-New York, Chicago, Seattle or San Francisco.”

Casino propaganda could affect children

“If a casino causes a significant percentage of exceptionally well resourced and committed parents (EWRCPs) to move away and causes new EWRCPs to elect not to move here, our schools may experience a significant drop in the percentage of children with exceptionally supportive home lives. If the out-migrations and reduced in-migrations of EWRCPs does occur, then our schools may begin to resemble inner city schools in their academic outcomes.”

“I suspect the casino will hope to achieve branding in the minds and hearts of the children. Like the propaganda efforts of the Nazi’s, the current day Palestinian schools and the current day Chinese schools, the casino may hope to train the minds and hearts of the children to be favorably inclined towards the casino and towards gaming.”

Giving the devil 'footholds' into community

“The point is that Satan and the demons can use the interpersonal bitterness and animosity created when we are angry with each other to inspire and manipulate us to mistreat each other and do wicked things to each other. Are we to limit this instruction to interpersonal interactions or are we to apply this wisdom about not creating footholds, entry points, for the satanic host to come into our lives and communities in a broad civil manner? For example, should we recruit the anti-Christian, pro-Islamic, anti-American Al Jazeera Network to come to Kings Mountain? Should we recruit some of the witchcraft and Satan worship covens in Asheville to come to Kings Mountain? Should we legalize prostitution and recreational drug use and set up brothels and opium dens? From a morally-ambivalent economic development standpoint, you could make a case for doing all of these.”

Not constitutional

“As I said in the beginning of this section, I do not think it is constitutional, nor do I think it is ‘necessary and proper’ for the federal government to confiscate land from N.C., or any other state, against the will of the state, for commercial purposes to create a satellite reservation purely for the objective of establishing a casino, economic and political objectives notwithstanding.”

'Risks were too great'

“I was originally excited about the prospect of the hotels, restaurants, shows, theaters, marketing, tourists, utility profits and jobs. However, as I pondered and estimated the possible trade-off costs and risks I came to the conclusion that I could not be for the casino project because the risks were too great.”

Where can you read the paper?

Visit https://sites.google.com/site/kmwhitepapers/ and click "View."

Where does the process stand?

-The Catawba Indian Nation made the application in September to have a gaming casino in Kings Mountain.

-The application is still in the process of being reviewed in Washington D.C. to see if the project meets all the legal criteria to have a casino.

-After that, the application will have to be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

-The Catawba nation and developers have been methodically working through the approval process in D.C., according to David Dear, an official with the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership, who added that the process is moving forward at a good pace without any roadblocks.

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“There may be officials in Shelby and elsewhere in the county that may resent Kings Mountain, that think they are smarter and more deserving, and resent the disproportionately large political and economic influence Kings Mountain has. There may be people that would like to see Kings Mountain weakened economically and politically so they can steal control of the lake and other capital assets from the city.”

In a 76-page document Kings Mountain City Councilman Keith Miller prepared and provided to The Star , Miller made this statement about Shelby and county officials, in an argument against the proposed Catawba Indian Nation resort and casino.

“If some of those people think the casino is bad for Kings Mountain would they be for the casino?” Miller asked in the document. “Just because someone is for the casino does not necessarily mean they think the casino is good for Kings Mountain.”

The document—a paper Miller wrote to examine the “possible political, economic, social, spiritual and constitutional implications of a casino near Kings Mountain”—contains a number of charts based on data Miller made via certain assumptions.

Miller is the only city councilman to oppose the casino and who didn’t sign the letter of support Kings Mountain's council sent in favor of the casino; he is also the only elected official in the county to speak out against the casino since news first broke in August of the plans.

“I fear the casino may gain control of the city council,” Miller said. “The result may be a darkening of the city economically, ethically, spiritually and educationally."

Miller drew headlines in April 2013 after a resolution he penned for Rowan County officials drew national and even international backlash.

Some residents and news organizations interpreted the resolution as an effort to establish an official state religion in North Carolina. However, Miller, its writer, said that was never the intent.

Selling souls

One of the main impacts Miller focused on in the paper is the resort's affect on churches in the area and the city’s spiritual health.

Based on four assumptions, Miller said the city’s churches might see a decrease in church attendance by as much as 1,500 people. His charts, based off his own assumptions, show 1,100 fewer baptisms overall after the casino has been open for 36 years.

“If we take those baptism numbers and divide them by the net economic benefits of casino impacts, we arrive at how many dollars of economic benefits were realized in the city market for each additional lost soul. Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The next chart may represent how much we might be selling each soul for,” Miller wrote in the document.

That chart shows, between the first and sixth operating year of the casino, the value of one lost soul could be $5 million.

Miller’s other charts and data are based heavily on assumptions, and Miller readily admitted in the document that he was “sure my assumptions and data are flawed.”

“I make no claim to be a professional at modeling economic impacts. But I am not an idiot either. I encourage readers to weigh broad concepts and not worry about the accuracy or inaccuracy of the numbers,” he said.

But numbers have been a big part of the conversation about the proposed resort.

UNC economic study

According to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's business school that examined the impacts of the Harrah's Cherokee Casino on the area, “Harrah's Cherokee Casino has had a clear positive impact on the economy of western North Carolina.”

The study said about 3.6 million people visit the casino each year, generating $386 million in revenue.

A phase 1 study for the resort provided to The Star in September reported that it would generate a total of nearly $90 million in wages for 4,000 newly created jobs.

“The economic impact and the jobs are very, very obvious,” said David Dear, former county manager now part of the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership. “I find it offensive and an insult to people’s intelligence that people are out there making up facts and figures to intimidate the public about the impact of the resort in our community.”

Dear said those facts have no basis, and that such a large investment in the community would attract even more development around it.

The resort's application, made by the Catawba Indian Nation in September, is still in the review process in Washington D.C. Once that process is finished, the application must be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“There’s still a little ways to go in the process before we know the results. But everything right now looks to be fine,” Dear said Thursday.

So what else can you find in the document?

A sample of other topics discussed regarding the casino:

On more than 4,000 jobs casino could bring

“Each of us weighs things differently. For example, I currently have a job so I might not value the prospect of new jobs as highly as someone who doesn’t have a job.”

Casino may ‘take over’ local governments

“Since the tribe may have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on local elections, they may eventually take over control of the city council, county commission, school board and sheriff’s offices.”

Kings Mountain city council's support

“At this point I believe it is necessary for me to address the quasi-official endorsement letter from the council. Given the assumptions, arguments and data discussed above, and given that council made the quasi-official endorsement without the benefit of impact statements focused on the city not the region, some have argued that council should either officially withdraw the endorsement letter for lack of sufficient information, or commission impact statement studies looking only at the impacts on the city, not the region.”

City could become like New York, San Francisco

“I think the exodus and repulsion of people who adhere to traditional family values, and others who lean to the right ideologically, may result in a shift of the local culture ideologically and financially to the left and to a spiritually different conviction. Kings Mountain may start to look more like a mini-New York, Chicago, Seattle or San Francisco.”

Casino propaganda could affect children

“If a casino causes a significant percentage of exceptionally well resourced and committed parents (EWRCPs) to move away and causes new EWRCPs to elect not to move here, our schools may experience a significant drop in the percentage of children with exceptionally supportive home lives. If the out-migrations and reduced in-migrations of EWRCPs does occur, then our schools may begin to resemble inner city schools in their academic outcomes.”

“I suspect the casino will hope to achieve branding in the minds and hearts of the children. Like the propaganda efforts of the Nazi’s, the current day Palestinian schools and the current day Chinese schools, the casino may hope to train the minds and hearts of the children to be favorably inclined towards the casino and towards gaming.”

Giving the devil 'footholds' into community

“The point is that Satan and the demons can use the interpersonal bitterness and animosity created when we are angry with each other to inspire and manipulate us to mistreat each other and do wicked things to each other. Are we to limit this instruction to interpersonal interactions or are we to apply this wisdom about not creating footholds, entry points, for the satanic host to come into our lives and communities in a broad civil manner? For example, should we recruit the anti-Christian, pro-Islamic, anti-American Al Jazeera Network to come to Kings Mountain? Should we recruit some of the witchcraft and Satan worship covens in Asheville to come to Kings Mountain? Should we legalize prostitution and recreational drug use and set up brothels and opium dens? From a morally-ambivalent economic development standpoint, you could make a case for doing all of these.”

Not constitutional

“As I said in the beginning of this section, I do not think it is constitutional, nor do I think it is ‘necessary and proper’ for the federal government to confiscate land from N.C., or any other state, against the will of the state, for commercial purposes to create a satellite reservation purely for the objective of establishing a casino, economic and political objectives notwithstanding.”

'Risks were too great'

“I was originally excited about the prospect of the hotels, restaurants, shows, theaters, marketing, tourists, utility profits and jobs. However, as I pondered and estimated the possible trade-off costs and risks I came to the conclusion that I could not be for the casino project because the risks were too great.”

Where can you read the paper?

Visit https://sites.google.com/site/kmwhitepapers/ and click "View."

Where does the process stand?

-The Catawba Indian Nation made the application in September to have a gaming casino in Kings Mountain.

-The application is still in the process of being reviewed in Washington D.C. to see if the project meets all the legal criteria to have a casino.

-After that, the application will have to be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

-The Catawba nation and developers have been methodically working through the approval process in D.C., according to David Dear, an official with the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership, who added that the process is moving forward at a good pace without any roadblocks.